Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 32
32
Deferred
Paragraph: 178
Require MoJ to publish plan and timeline for collecting primary carer data.
Recommendation
It continues to be a concern that the MoJ does not know how many women in prison are primary carers. Without this data, it is not possible to assess the specific needs of mothers in prison, or how well these needs are being met. We note that the MoJ is considering how to improve the central collection of this information by making changes to the questions in the Basic Custody Screening Tool. The MoJ should set out what work it is doing to ensure that vital information, such as this, is collected and published. It should also set out an indicative timeline for the collection and publication of this data.
Government Response Summary
The government accepted the recommendation but did not set out work or a timeline for collecting and publishing data on women in prison who are primary carers. Instead, it described commitments to improve job opportunities and employment support for women, detailing the roles of the New Futures Network and Employment Brokers, and noting that 10 Prison Employment Leads and 6 Employment Hubs are operational in women's prisons as of September 2022.
Paragraph Reference:
178
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
We accept this recommendation. In the PSWP, the Government set out a range of commitments to build links with employers to maximise job opportunities and deliver a presumption in favour of giving offenders the chance to work; and to equip prisons to support more prison leavers into employment. To achieve this, the New Futures Network has a dedicated role to partner prisons and probation with businesses, and a specialist Employment Broker to do this for women’s prisons. These partnerships provide businesses with individuals who are ready to take up work opportunities within prison industries, as part of work based ROTL, and on release. The Employment Broker for the women’s estate takes feedback from women’s prisons about the type of roles women are looking for on release and works with colleagues who are national sector specialists to find suitable opportunities for female prison leavers. This process of feedback will be enhanced by the introduction of Prison Employment Leads who will know their cohort and work closely with the Employment Broker. The New Futures Network will work with all women’s prisons to: • recruit more Prison Employment Leads into every women’s prison (responsible for developing an establishment-level employment strategy, matching prisoners to jobs on release and providing support tailored to local needs) • launch further Employment Hubs (where prisoners can access job opportunities and support with CVs and job applications) • recruit new ID and Banking Administrators (to ensure prisoners have ID and a bank account before release) • launch further Employment Advisory Boards (chaired by business leaders, these link prisons with industry to provide challenge and advice on the skills delivered in prisons) The New Futures Network will be providing operational guidance as necessary to support these initiatives, tracking milestones and working with prisons to assure quality standards for each initiative. As of 5 September 2022, 10 Prison Employment Leads are in place in women’s prisons and 6 Employment Hubs are operational. New Futures Network is one of many organisations that are dedicated to finding work opportunities for both men and women in prisons. Organisations include Education Providers, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Prison Work Coaches and a range of other partners. DWP has 17 Prison Work Coaches based in women’s prisons, who provide employment support throughout their time within custody. HMPPS publish statistics on the employment rate for all prisoners 6 weeks and 6 months after their release. The latest statistics were published in July 2022 and can be broken down by gender. In the financial year April 2021 to March 2022, 3.8% of women (compared to 10.4% for men) leaving prison were in employment after 6 weeks and 6% (compared to 14.5% for men) were in employment after 6 months.